A university inside the suburban sprawl of northeastern New Jersey has suspended a student for comparing another student’s legs to “a pair of bleached hams” in a YouTube comment, reports CBS New York.

School officials at Montclair State University allegedly determined that Joseph Aziz, a 26-year-old graduate student, violated the school’s student code when he published the derogatory comment.

The history of the fracas dates back to August, when Aziz showed up at a campus speech by Republican Steve Lonegan along with other members of Young Americans for Liberty, which describes itself as the school’s largest political organization.

The female student who was the subject of Aziz’s mockery also attended the speech along with a male companion, reports NJ.com. The male companion heckled Lonegan during his speech.

Someone apparently videotaped the episode and put it on YouTube. Aziz commented twice under the video. The comments allegedly called attention to the weight of both the heckler and the female student.

YouTube has since deleted the video and its comments.

“The initial comments were in poor taste and I regret making them,” Aziz told NJ.com. “I was frustrated with what I perceived as an attack on the speaker whose appearance my group sponsored.”

Such would have concluded one of millions of wonderfully insignificant instances of free speech in the United States but for the fact that someone later reported Aziz’s comments to the taxpayer-funded university.

"Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

"Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."

...On Oct. 9, CBS New York says, officials at Montclair State issued a no-contact order — basically a restraining order — obligating Aziz to avoid “written, verbal, or electronic contact; physical or ‘in-person’ contact, or contact by third parties” with the female student. The order also barred Aziz from contacting the other student on social media, and even mentioning her on social media.

If Aziz did not comply, the order warned, he would face legal action.

Later, Aziz posted comments about his travails in a private Facebook group — wholly unrelated to the school. “Insults are also illegal if the person gets offended,” he said in the Facebook group “Oceanian Troll Order,” according to CBS New York. He also claimed to love “trolling” online.

What law? What right does a university have to order someone to refrain from free speech?

Sooo, in the manner of a Theorist, you would like to argue this real-life predicament from Square One...not "merely" whether THIS exercise of university authority passes legal muster, but whether the university can regulate/infringe/censor ANY speech. Fear not, PLENTY of lawyers stand ready to "duke that out"...if you can pony up the fees.

Bearing PICK YOUR BATTLES in mind,

...officials at Montclair State issued a no-contact order — basically a restraining order — obligating Aziz to avoid “written, verbal, or electronic contact; physical or ‘in-person’ contact, or contact by third parties” with the female student. The order also barred Aziz from contacting the other student on social media, and even mentioning her on social media.

If Aziz did not comply, the order warned, he would face legal action.

Later, Aziz posted comments about his travails in a private Facebook group — wholly unrelated to the school. “Insults are also illegal if the person gets offended,” he said in the Facebook group “Oceanian Troll Order,” according to CBS New York. He also claimed to love “trolling” online.

^^ this constitutes BORROWING TROUBLE.

He wasn't ordered to not criticize "The Left" or "The Government". He received a (ridiculously peecee) restraining order regarding a particular civilian, and her fat friend. Liberty requires Discipline...bummer, but there you have it. That "authorities" should not be ABLE to do much of what they do is academic, unless/until reforms occur &/or people rebel.

That Government is doing things it ought not do is precisely why NOT getting caught up in the meat grinder is a steady objective.

Anything you say can be used against you if you "find yourself" in trouble with The Law.

...officials at Montclair State issued a no-contact order — basically a restraining order — obligating Aziz to avoid “written, verbal, or electronic contact; physical or ‘in-person’ contact, or contact by third parties” with the female student. The order also barred Aziz from contacting the other student on social media, and even mentioning her on social media.

If Aziz did not comply, the order warned, he would face legal action.

Later, Aziz posted comments about his travails in a private Facebook group — wholly unrelated to the school. “Insults are also illegal if the person gets offended,” he said in the Facebook group “Oceanian Troll Order,” according to CBS New York. He also claimed to love “trolling” online.

$#@!s act in their nature. It is "our" legal system that cuts them wide berth unto carte blanche.

Lawyers share this with Cops: That so many WICKED ones pervert the profession...WITHOUT their "distinguished colleagues" eradicating the bull$#@! like the malignant cancer that it is...makes it kinda hard to argue that there are any GOOD ones.

Yet when I ran for school board here in good ol' Charlotte, NC, the education writer in her "blog" on the local newspaper's website all but called me a dangerous right-wing extremist with views which border on white supremacy. That, because I wrote an on-line comment critical of a city councilman who strong-armed a private hotel into cancelling a meeting of a "white hate group". It had nothing to do with wanting the trash here; it had everything to do with the interference of a private contract and free speech. She also neglected to mention that I defended the local NAACP's leader for a MLK day school walkout, because the idiots on the school board okayed a Federal Holiday for a makeup day.

I realize that for that time I was a "public figure" and was subject to more scruntiny, BUT, it is perfectly okay to lie about and trash a conservative or a libertarian.

"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." -- Ronald Reagan, 1964

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, unless any of these activities hurts someone's feelings or offends anyone.

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
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--
"When it comes to rule making, our first duty is to make rules for our own conduct. If we don't, then we run afoul of violating other people's rights to freedom. Freedom is not an outcomes-based approach to solving social problems. It is a start and it is a moral premise. It says that no one has the right to trespass on another person, but outside of that you are free to pursue whatever makes you happy." -John Houlgate

Victory: Montclair State Rescinds Suspension of Student for Social Media Comments
January 18, 2013

Montclair State Logo

NEWARK, N.J., January 18, 2013—Montclair State University has rescinded its suspension of student Joseph Aziz for violating an unconstitutional gag order that the university imposed on him after he made comments on social media. University President Susan A. Cole revoked the semester-long suspension in a letter to Aziz yesterday evening, three days after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) exposed Montclair State's punishment to the public.

"While Montclair State never should have issued its unconstitutional gag order in the first place, we commend President Cole for acting swiftly to end the situation once it became public," said FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley. "Since this unwarranted suspension prevented Mr. Aziz from attending any classes, we expect that Montclair State will make accommodations to ensure that he can get into the classes he needs as soon as possible. We also expect that the university will make sure that this unjust punishment does not appear on his records."

Aziz's ordeal stemmed from comments he made to a YouTube video regarding the weight of a male and female student with whom he disagreed politically. In response, Montclair State issued an order prohibiting Aziz from having any contact with the female student and also unlawfully barred Aziz from making "any social media" comments about her. While Aziz did not contact the student after the order was issued, he later posted a number of comments complaining about the incident, the student, and the gag order on the wall of a private Facebook group to which she did not have access. Among other statements, Aziz joked about escaping the student's "tyrannical ham lock." This was apparently a reference to the fact that the gag order was issued in response to his earlier comment that the individual's legs resembled "bleached hams."

Montclair State was informed of the comments and, at a campus judicial hearing, cleared Aziz of charges of harassment and disruptive conduct but found him guilty of violating the gag order. He was suspended for the spring 2013 semester, barred from campus under threat of arrest, and required to complete two educational "modules."

Aziz came to FIRE for help. FIRE wrote to President Cole on January 4, 2013, pointing out that the gag order and subsequent punishment represented a serious violation of Aziz's First Amendment rights. Receiving no response, FIRE took the case public on Monday. Yesterday evening, Aziz received Cole's letter rescinding his punishment. In the letter, Cole wrote that because Montclair had found in December that Aziz had not violated any rules regarding harassment or disruptive conduct, the no-contact order he was punished for violating—which included the unconstitutional gag order at the center of the university's case—should have been lifted. Cole revoked Aziz's punishment and permitted him to return to class, effective immediately.

"Montclair State briefly tried to justify its decision by appealing to New Jersey's anti-bullying law, but Aziz's comments did not constitute bullying under the law's definition of the term. Even if they had, Aziz's speech still would have been protected by the First Amendment, which supersedes state law," said FIRE's Shibley. "While Montclair State recognized its error this time, several of the university's policies could still be used to silence student speech in the future. FIRE would be pleased to work with President Cole to revise those policies to comply with the First Amendment, by which all public universities are legally and morally bound."

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation's colleges and universities. FIRE's efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.

"Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

"Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."